My daughter's ballet costume that didn't really serve the purpose.

Hiya needleworkers, I made this dress for my daughter who loves to dance ballet. The dress was a costume for her ballet recital at her end of year party which was held last week. She danced Odette in Swan lake. The original colour was black and white but I wanted to be extra to bring the colours alive a bit so I added a touch of orange being my daughter's favourite colour.

As excited as I was to make this dress, the whole experience turned sour for me when the school rejected the dress after I had presented it for inspection. According to them, they wanted a polo and a tutu separated, not a dress like what I made.

Seeing how disappointed I was and not to make my effort go to waste, the proprietress suggested I take out the tutu from the dress and attach it to a band to form a skirt. That way, my daughter can still wear my work. It was a last minute salvage as the party was a day after.

Honestly, I didn't know how I was going to separate the tutu without ruining the top as I would still want her to rock the top on a short or maybe crochet a flare bottom for it to form a gown.

Well, I'd say that I did try for the separation as the damage isn't all that visible. I also had my reservations with the tutu and wanted to just buy it with the polo and her black hose but I couldn't get one. So I managed to gather enough courage and because I didn't want my daughter to miss out on the dance I had to give it my best.

Seeing my daughter on stage performing elevated my mood, it was more like a proud mother moment for me especially seeing how beautiful the tutu I made was on her. Did I tell you guys everything from the dress was a first trial and all hand made?

This outfit really did motivate and awakened a creative side of me I didn't even know existed and I sure would be exploring some more with crochet hooks and needles.

So let's go over to the procedure

MATERIALS USED

Yarn
3.5mm crochet hook
Big sewing needle
Black thread.

The inspiration of the costume was gotten from the ballet uniform she uses for practice. I made use of a measuring tape so I wasn't doing much counting of the stitches. Since I wasn't using a zip but a rope to join the top together, I did a chain of 22 inches and then started building it with a double crochet. When I got to the end of the chain, I turned it, and started crocheting back with the same double crochet.

I repeated the pattern till I got the desired length of my daughter's size. I didn't measure with a tape again at this point, I just kept sizing it with her body.

Close to the end of the top, I did one roll of single crochet with orange yarn and then finished up with two rolls double crochet with the black yarn.

THE HAND

I first did a long chain to attach the top at the back. Afterwards, I measured 1.5 inches from the armpit of the dress and did a chain of 9 inches attaching it to the other end of the edge of the top at the back. I crocheted outward and round the chain plus the edge of the armpit area with a single crochet for three steps then I started with a double crochet. I repeated the pattern with a double crochet till I built on the length of the hand to four inches.

Since I needed a puff hand, I made five double crochet and skipped one till I covered the whole hand width. I repeated the pattern in the next step and further tightened the hand grip with a single crochet.

I repeated the same pattern for the second hand and by the time I was done, both the neck and edges of the hand of the dress looked too plain and basic so I added a some what lace design by doing six double crochet in a stitch, skip three the make a single crochet in the next stitch. Skip another three and make six double crochet in the next stitch. Repeat this pattern till the top edges of the neck and hand area are covered.

When my daughter tried on the top, I noticed the hand is a bit free so I made a short chain with the orange yarn to use as draw string to tighten the hand to my daughter's size

THE TUTU

I got a black net of two yards, measured a width of 5 inches each and then cut them. With a big needle and black thread, I sewed loosely on the edges of the net and then dragged to give the folded design.

After getting the folded design for all the nets, I joined them together to form a skirt and then attached the same needle and thread to the crochet top and sewed the edge of the tutu round the bottom of the top.
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For the tutu skirt, after separating it from the top, I measured the band to the size of my daughter's waist and then still with the same big needle and thread, I sewed the detached tutu round the band to form a skirt.

GALLERY